Contest is now closed! Please be sure to check out the film Drive in theaters this Friday!

To celebrate the upcoming release of the movie Drive (starring Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan and Bryan Cranston, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and based on the book by James Sallis) PopMatters is excited to offer our readers a chance to win some unique movie tie-in items. Entering this contest will give you the chance to get away with a collectible Drive package featuring a pair of driving gloves, a key chain, USB Car Charger, USB Drive, Ryan Gosling poster, Ron Perlman poster and Carey Mulligan poster.

To celebrate the release of AK 100 and the 100th anniversary of Akira Kurosawa’s birth, Image Entertainment has provided PopMatters with these exclusive Kurosawa stills from films never before released on home video, including The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail (1945), The Most Beautiful (1944), Sanshiro Sugata (1943), and Sanshiro Sugata, Part II (1944).

Product details from Image: The creator of such timeless masterpieces as Rashomon, Ikiru, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and High and Low, Akira Kurosawa is one of the most influential and beloved filmmakers who ever lived — and for many the greatest artist the medium has known. Now, on the occasion of the centenary of his birth, the Criterion Collection is proud to present this deluxe set celebrating his astonishing career. Featuring 25 of the films he made over the course of his 50 years in movies — from samurai epics to postwar noirs to Shakespeare adaptations — AK 100 is the most complete set of his works ever released in this country, and includes four rare films that have never been available for home video.

Plot summary: Rarely can a film penetrate the glamorous surface of rock legends. It Might Get Loud tells the personal stories, in their own words, of three generations of electric guitar virtuosos -– The Edge (U2), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), and Jack White (The White Stripes). It reveals how each developed his unique sound and style of playing favorite instruments, guitars both found and invented. Concentrating on the artist’s musical rebellion, traveling with him to influential locations, provoking rare discussion as to how and why he writes and plays, this film lets you witness intimate moments and hear new music from each artist. The movie revolves around a day when Jimmy Page, Jack White, and the Edge first met and sat down together to share their stories, teach and play.
[Sony Pictures Classics]

Plot summary: Set in the weeks leading up to the 2008 presidential election, The Girlfriend Experience is five days in the life of Chelsea (adult film star Sasha Grey in her mainstream film debut), an ultra high-end Manhattan call girl who offers more than sex to her clients, but companionship and conversation—“the girlfriend experience”. Chelsea thinks she has her life totally under control—she feels her future is secure because she runs her own business her own way, makes $2,000 an hour, and has a devoted boyfriend (Chris Santos) who accepts her lifestyle. But when you’re in the business of meeting people, you never know who you’re going to meet…

The 20th film from Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh, The Girlfriend Experience is a sexy, gorgeously shot time capsule from the not-too-distant past. [Magnolia Pictures]

Plot summary: Julia, 40, is an alcoholic. She is a manipulative, unreliable, compulsive liar, all strung out beneath her still flamboyant exterior. Between shots of vodka and one-night stands, Julia gets by on nickel-and-dime jobs. Increasingly lonely, the only consideration she receives comes from her friend Mitch, who tries to help her. But she shrugs him off, as her alcohol-induced confusion daily reinforces her sense that life has dealt her a losing hand and that she is not to blame for the mess she has made of it.

Glimpsing imminent perdition, and after a chance encounter with Elena, a Mexican woman, Julia convinces herself – as much in panic and despair as for financial gain – to commit a violent act. As the story unfolds, Julia’s journey becomes a headlong flight on a collision course, but somehow she makes the choice of life over death. [Magnolia Pictures]